Alisa Brownlee, ATP, CAPS blog offers recent articles and web information on ALS, assistive technology--augmentative alternative communication (AAC), computer access, and other electronic devices that can impact and improve the quality of life for people with ALS.
Email--abrownlee@alsa-national.org.
Any views or opinions presented on this blog are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the ALS Association.

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Friday, July 20, 2012

Thanks to a new device, millions of people suffering from
Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, muscular dystrophy, or spinal cord
injuries could soon interact with their computers and surroundings using just
their eyes.

Composed from off-the-shelf materials, the technology
works out exactly where a person is looking by tracking their eye movements,
allowing them to control a cursor on a screen just like a normal computer
mouse.

A team of researchers from Imperial College London have
developed an eye-tracking device that lets you control a computer, and not just
control it, play games, read e-mails, and even browse the web.

While eye-tracking technology is not new, this device is
exciting for one good reason: it's cheap to build. While similar technology can
be very unaffordable for those who really need it, this new device can be built
for less than $60, and is made out of two video game console cameras.

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Taipei, July 15 (CNA) Author Chen Hung, who has an
incurable degenerative nerve disease, unveiled on Sunday with first lady Chow
Mei-ching on hand a book series compiled from previous works he "wrote" by
blinking his eyes.

The bedridden Chen, who was an active
photojournalist, educator and photographer before being diagnosed with
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in the late 1990s, greeted the first lady by
eye-typing "Hello, Ms. Chow" at an event to promote a collection of five volumes
containing 360 articles compiled from seven books Chen completed between 2001
and 2010.

Also known as Lou Gehring's disease, ALS, or motor neuron
disease (MND), leads to symptoms such as muscle weakness and stiffness, and
eventually leaves the patient unable to move, but patients' minds are usually
unaffected.

The cause of the disease is unknown and there is no cure.

Chen broke the Guinness world record for the most words published using
eye-blinking dictation with his fifth novel published in 2007, which contains
more than 190,000 Chinese characters.

In total, the complete series of
five volumes, scheduled to be officially published on Monday, has 350,000
characters, according to the publisher.

Chen covers a wide variety of
topics in his writing, from painting, drama, and photography to medical care in
an optimistic and hopeful tone. He also chronicled his decade-long battle
against the disease.

The 79-year-old began to "write" books with the
help of his wife, blinking his eyes to represent Chinese phonetic symbols. He
published his first book that used the technique in 2002.

It took him
about five to seven days to complete 1,000 characters, according to the event's
host Ma Hsi-ping, who was Chen's student when he taught at a journalism and
communications college in Taipei.

The eye-dictation process was both
tiring and time-consuming and took a lot of patience, said Chen's wife Liu
Hsueh-hui. However, he insisted on "handing in his work on time" and remained
productive for years, she said.

Chen is an unusual ALS case because most
patients only live for three to five years after the disease attacks, said the
writer's doctor Chen Wen-kuei.

Although his health condition does not
allow him to write by winking anymore, Chen's words will continue to inspire not
only those with illnesses but all readers, the publisher said.

"I've
been lying in bed for over a decade. Living in confinement, my 'land' is indeed
narrow, which is something I can do nothing about. What I can do is to expand
the borders of my mind to balance the 'narrow land,'" Chen wrote in the book.